The ARTHUR ROWE Thread

Aegina Expat

Arthur Sydney Rowe(1 September 1906 - 17 November 1993) was the first manager to lead Spurs to the First Division Championship title in 1951. He also 'invented' the successful "one-two" method of play.

THE STORY of Arthur Rowe, who was manager of Tottenham Hotspur for an all too brief spell from 1949 to 1955, is one of triumph and tragedy. Rowe had one of the sharpest soccer brains the English game has ever known. But it was so finely tuned that he suffered a nervous breakdown because of the pressure of trying to keep Spurs where he had put them - on top.

He bounced back in a series of different jobs with Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion, Leyton Orient and Millwall in the Sixties and Seventies. Indeed, he managed Palace for two short spells. But it was during his golden years at White Hart Lane that Rowe carved a football niche as the architect of Spurs' successful 'push-and-run' side. He guided the club to their first ever League championship, in 1950-51.

He was Tottenham born and bred, honed his early soccer skills at Parkhouse Road School and playing for London Schoolboys as an outside-right - although he was later to spend his professional career as a centre-half. He left school in 1921, the year a Jimmy Dimmock goal took the FA Cup to White Hart Lane, and he signed amateur forms for Spurs in 1924.

But there was no meteoric rise to fame. Spurs sent him to Cheshunt in the Athenian League for a year and then to the Kent club Northleigh for the next four seasons to learn his trade, before calling him up to join the big boys in the summer of 1929. Even then he had to wait until 1931-32 to make the first of his 182 League appearances for his only professional club. 'I never scored a goal for the first team. They didn't like the centre-half to go too far over the halfway line in those days,' he said.

Rowe captained Spurs to third place in the old First Division in 1933-34 and won an England cap against France in the process. But it was the following season, when Spurs were relegated, that left a greater mark on his memory.

When injury ended his career in 1939 he went to Budapest to spend two months as the official Hungarian government's instructor to their soccer coaches. He liked Hungary and was preparing to stay longer until Hitler took a hand and Rowe returned home to join the Army.

With his demob in 1945 he took charge of the Southern League outfit Chelmsford. It was there in May 1949 he got the call from Spurs and joined them as manager at pounds 1,500 a year. For three post-war seasons Spurs had got 50,000 people on the terraces and nowhere in the Second Division. Rowe, still burning at the indignity of demotion 14 years earlier, transformed them with a team which included only a solitary newcomer, in the full-back Alf Ramsey.

Push and run, they called it. 'In fact, mate, it's just a case of doing the obvious. Football's a simple game, it's the players who make it difficult,' he said.

Whatever the reason, Spurs started with a 4-1 victory at Brentford, romped away with the Second Division title, and won the First Division in the same memorable fashion a year later.

Even when poor health led to his resignation, he still left Spurs a legacy of style and one of his last signings - Danny Blanchflower - who was to lead the club to a historic double at the start of the Sixties.

English football could do with a young Arthur Rowe. But then, as he often said, 'All you need to remember is that 50 per cent of the people in the game are bluffers. So a decent manager's halfway there when he starts out.'

New Member

i remember in our 100th anniversary year, the BBC did a wonderful tribute to us, narrated by Motty i think, and they interviwed AR, and he talked about being carried down the terraces as a kid to the front, and by the end of the i/v he was so emotional -'Tottenham , they meant everything to me' there were tears in his eyes and you could tell just how much he loved Spurs

Aegina Expat

Donkey's years ago now Spurs brought out a book and video which I think was called 'The Glory Glory Nights', the Rowe interview was on it. Haven't seen it for years, IIRC it went something like this......

Interviewer: So what do Tottenham mean to you?
AR: What do Tottenham mean to me.........(choking up, tears welling in his eyes), everything, Tottenham meant everything to me.

It's one of those moments that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Perhaps someone out there has this, coupled with the knowledge to sling this up on YouTube. I hope so. It deserves airing.

New Member

Donkey's years ago now Spurs brought out a book and video which I think was called 'The Glory Glory Nights', the Rowe interview was on it. Haven't seen it for years, IIRC it went something like this......

Interviewer: So what do Tottenham mean to you?
AR: What do Tottenham mean to me.........(choking up, tears welling in his eyes), everything, Tottenham meant everything to me.

It's one of those moments that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Perhaps someone out there has this, coupled with the knowledge to sling this up on YouTube. I hope so. It deserves airing.

yep A&C - that's the one i was talking about - it was almost certainly taken from the BBC programme i was referring to- which as i say was a brilliant tribute in general

I remember when the programme was shown i was getting so excited, because it had so much footage new to me at the time, and you just didn't get that much football on TV those days, and no internet etc, that my girlfriend of the time jumped out of the bath and came running into the front room,

she'd just heard such a commotion she wondered what was going on, and was worried something terrible was happening

unsurprisingly when she saw the source of the hubbub, she gave a typical 'is that it' reaction - she really couldn't understand

luckily i had the whole thing on video, so was able to watch it many a time without her interrupting

i think i ridiculously later wiped out part of the programme with a taping of us beating nottm forest 9-2

but no idea where the video is now - can't remember if the Arthur Rowe bit survived my clumsy editing - i used to try to 'splice together' spurs highlight videos - taping over duff bits of say a Football Focus item just to get the requisite gem - it was quite a mission - but kept me off the streets

Fly Ride Electroglide

I've been told about that programme/film/documentary but never saw it, even tracked it down on Amazon but I no longer have a VHS video player. I just checked again and it's still on there if anyone wants to get their hands on it. It's called 'The History Of Tottenham Hotspur In Europe - The Glory Glory Nights'......

Active Member

Donkey's years ago now Spurs brought out a book and video which I think was called 'The Glory Glory Nights', the Rowe interview was on it. Haven't seen it for years, IIRC it went something like this......

Interviewer: So what do Tottenham mean to you?
AR: What do Tottenham mean to me.........(choking up, tears welling in his eyes), everything, Tottenham meant everything to me.

It's one of those moments that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Perhaps someone out there has this, coupled with the knowledge to sling this up on YouTube. I hope so. It deserves airing.

Better a wag than a WAG

Another Tottenham legend indeed and that interview had me misty-eyed too. Where are the loyal, one-club men now? Sadly, a rare breed.

re. Glory, Glory Nights that has pride of place on my bookshelf and my friend Jill and I, aged 15, are in the photo on the inside of the front cover - I've posted it before. We were about to hold the precious European Cup-Winners' Cup through the WHL gates.

Billy Nick, Arthur Rowe and many more feature on this video - all Spurs fans should see it.

Well-Known Member

How much of a role he played in hungry im not sure but if he did teach them the push and run system prior to managing spurs, he is the most influential manager of all time

As that system led to hungry becoming the greatest team on the eye at the time which led to the total football system which was improved by cruyff at his time at barcelona, so in a way barca play the tottenham way:grin:

Well-Known Member

How much of a role he played in hungry im not sure but if he did teach them the push and run system prior to managing spurs, he is the most influential manager of all time

As that system led to hungry becoming the greatest team on the eye at the time which led to the total football system which was improved by cruyff at his time at barcelona, so in a way barca play the tottenham way:grin:

I think he brought it back rather than taught it, although the great Hungary team was playing around the same time he was our manager so perhaps he worked with the Hungarian establishment to develop the style.

Either way, I still maintain that his Spurs side is the most important in English football history.

Well-Known Member

I think he brought it back rather than taught it, although the great Hungary team was playing around the same time he was our manager so perhaps he worked with the Hungarian establishment to develop the style.

Either way, I still maintain that his Spurs side is the most important in English football history.

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